Alejo Maldonado (born 1938) is a Puerto Rican former policeman who was convicted, in 1982, with charges of corruption and kidnapping. According to police records, he was involved in the kidnapping of one Mario Consuegra .
A public server with an apparently perfect service record, Maldonado became leader of the CIC (Centro de Investigaciones Criminales) inside Puerto Rican police.
Maldonado allegedly became a criminal around 1972. In 1974, he met a woman, whose name he refuses to identify in public. He has called this woman the love of his life.
Maldonado became infamous across Puerto Rico after he was arrested in 1982. In what became a wide medial scandal, Maldonado openly spoke about corruption in the Puerto Rican police, connections with the Puerto Rican mafia, murders and robberies committed by policemen.
Next followed the media scandal, and a court case that would be closely followed by Puerto Rican newspapers and television through most of the middle 1980s. Maldonado received a sentence, in June 1983, of 40 years in prison.
Maldonado flew on July 1 of that year to New York, to begin his jail term there. He would be transferred to other American jails, describing his experience at the Louisville, Kentucky jail as the worst one he lived through.
In jail, he became a librarian, and he learned that, with good behavior, his sentence would be reduced to twenty six years. He also learned that, under current laws, he could be sentenced to only eight years in jail for the same charges that he was sentenced for two decades ago.
Maldonado was in charge of lending prisoners books, and, in some cases, of teaching them from those books.
He also learned fluid English during his stint there.
Maldonado was released on December of 2004. During an interview with El Vocero, he expressed anger at the way that society perceives people who have been in jail. He said that he felt it was right to greet people who went to jail for defending Vieques upon return to their communities, but that it has been hard for him to find a job to support his family after he was released.
He also told El Vocero that he feels that the things he declared about police corruption in Puerto Rico were neccesary for the general public there to know about.
Maldonado returned to regular society choosing to lead a quieter life. He still lives with the same woman he met in 1974, and had his interview with El Vocero conducted at an unspecified place in Isla Verde. The interview was published on February 22, 2005, and it made the publication's headlines.
See also
External Links
Maldonado interview with El Vocero
